Harry Potter and the Ghosts of Hogwarts

Harry said thank you to Dudley honestly after they got out of the van and Aunt Petunia went inside. Dudley seemed to get more nervous about the visit as the week went by. Aunt Petunia kept talking about how polite Tad was and how happy she was that Dudley was making new friends.

"He talked in only the most courteous of manners," Aunt Petunia said to Uncle Vernon at dinner, "I think that he will be a good influence on Dudley. He seems like a good boy. After all, Dudley's usually chooses the nicest of boys to befriend."

Aunt Petunia went on to praise Tad in every way that she could. Uncle Vernon seemed very excited to meet Tad.

"You say that he came from America this year?" Uncle Vernon asked, "I wonder if he will apply to Smeltings. He sounds like he would fit in there nicely."

Harry had to hide his smile all through these conversations. He was sure that if his relatives knew that it was Harry's friend they would not be so enthusiastic about him coming to their home. But he was happy that they approved of him. He laughed to himself at the idea of them discovering that they were really praising Harry's friend instead of Dudley's.

At school Harry and Tad talked about it constantly. When Harry asked what Tad was thinking when he did that his only answer was that, "I just thought that if you weren't going to step and ask your Aunt if I could come over, I would get proactive."

Now that Tad was going to come over and he was going to be so favored in his relatives' eyes he thought that he should warn him of the taboos that they had.

"If you want to be liked by my relatives you need to remember a couple of things. Be very law abiding in their presence, always be on time, and never mention magic."

"Why can't I talk about magic?" Tad asked looking at Harry strangely.

"They think it is evil and they don't like anything of or relating to it to be around them. I don't mind magic but you should just show me your tricks after school."

Harry thought it was funny that his friend thought he could do magic tricks, but he kept it to himself, if only Harry could show him some real magic.

* * *

Aunt Petunia had given Harry every chore she could think of that would make the house and the garden look better. All of this he had to complete before he went to bed that night so that when Tad and his mother came over the following day it would impress them. He had to vacuum the living room twice, dust all surfaces, polish all wood, clean all glass, wash all coverings for the sofas, mow the lawn twice, trim the hedges, weed the garden, water the flowers, and hand wash the driveway so that it didn't have oil stains on it. All of this Harry did without complaining. He would do anything for Aunt Petunia as long as Tad got to come over.

The time set for Tad to arrive was ten in the morning so Harry was up at six. On Saturday he usually devoted his time to summer homework from Hogwarts because the rest of the week was so busy that he didn't have much time to work on it, but because Tad would be there all day, Harry thought that he would get up early and work on it. Harry was really sleepy so he decided that he should do some thing to wake himself up. In the past he would have gotten something to eat and then started working, but ever since Dudley's diet started there wasn't anything in reach that would give him the boost he needed to wake up and study.

This is when Harry got a very bright idea. He remembered how tired he used to be after school and then he would go to Quidditch practice and he wouldn't feel tired any longer. The exercise gave him adrenaline to help him stay awake when he got back and finish his homework. Of course Harry could not go out on his broom here but he could exercise, so Harry decided to go for a jog.

He ran for an hour finding that it was refreshing. He got back at seven and his relatives wouldn't be awake for another hour so he had a quick shower and worked on his potions essay.

At eight Aunt Petunia came barging into his room asleep and was quite startled to find that he was already awake. She was scared because Harry was not known for being an early riser and she was sure he was up to something.

"What did you do?" She hissed at him. "If you do something awful to Tad, like what you did to Marge I swear I will throw you from this house and never let you in again."

She left the room and Harry packed up his school things and stashed them in his drawers and under the loose floorboard.

He put on the gray slacks from his uniform and one of the sweaters he had managed to shrink down to a reasonable size. He looked at his hair and knew that there was not point in trying to comb it, it had a life of it's own. He looked around his room and thought how plain it would seem to any one that saw it. All he had were some of Dudley's old broken toys, a few books, a bed, and a dresser. He didn't have anything on the walls or even patterned sheets on his bed. How boring he would seem when Tad came and looked at his room. Harry thought that this was also sadly ironic because he did not lead a boring life; he had more adventure than most would ever ask for.

He walked downstairs only to find that Aunt Petunia had more chores for him to finish before Tad got there. She had spent a good deal of effort on creating a lovely brunch for them when they came and she didn't want them to see the dirty dishes if they went into the kitchen for some reason so Harry had to clean all of the pans she had dirtied while Aunt Petunia went upstairs to put on makeup. Harry did this though he wasn't happy and in the end he spilled dirty dishwater on his sweater and he had to go up to his room and exchange it for one that was two sizes too large.

Dudley came down and eyed the food set out hungrily. He hadn't seen so much food since the last care package Aunt Marge sent him at school. Aunt Marge was strictly against the diet thinking that he was cute in his largesse. He was about to take a greedy handful when Aunt Petunia came down the stairs and caught him millimeters away from the food.

"Oh no Duddy-kinns that isn't for you," Aunt Petunia tried to be nice about it but it was obvious that she wasn't going to take no for an answer, "That's for our guests, I have a special plate made just for you with healthy vegetables and a whole grain roll. Besides we wouldn't want to regain that seven pounds, now would we?"

Dudley obviously didn't mind regaining that seven pounds or even more than seven pounds, but he new that it was a rhetorical question, and he knew that he was destined to have fruits and vegetables for the rest of the summer.

Just then Uncle Vernon came down and they all went and sat in the living room and waited for their visitors to arrive. As soon as Aunt Petunia heard the car in the drive she jumped from her seat and went to the door opening it after only one knock.

"Welcome," she said to Tad and his mother in the most cheery mood Harry had ever heard her in. "I am so delighted to finally have you over, we have a lovely brunch prepared and then we can let the boys have their fun together."

The whole time she had an over stressed smile spread across her face.

"I am Petunia Dursley so glad to finally meet you." She continued in the same manner.

"Nice to meet you," She said returning her smile, but not with nearly as much enthusiasm, "I am Elizabeth Rankle."

She was very pretty for a mom; she wore a tailored gray suit and had a scarf around he neck to accent her earrings and blouse. Her hair was dark brown and pulled back into a French twist.

"So which is Harry and which is Dudley?" She asked. Dudley was sitting on the love seat, which he needed all to himself and Harry was leaning on a wall because there wasn't enough room to fit all of them on the couches.

Dudley saw the look from his mother and he reached out one of his stubby hands toward her. "I'm Dudley."

She shook his hand and then walked over to Harry with an interested smile on her face, "That makes you Harry."

"Yep, nice to meet you." Harry wasn't used to meeting guest in the house for the past four years he had been kept away from all of the people who came to the Dursley home.

Mrs. Rankle was very interested in Harry for some reason, "You look familiar some how."

Harry smiled ironically, if she only knew that people all over the world knew him only by reputation and that he was in fact famous. It was nice to be able to say, "Oh I am sure that you wouldn't know me."

Aunt Petunia was getting quite upset over all the attention that Harry was receiving instead of Dudley so she said in a now fake-cheery voice, "Why don't we have brunch. Follow me to the dining room."

They all followed and Aunt Petunia engaged Mrs. Rankle in a conversation about the neighbors and how odd they all were. Just then the doorbell rang and Aunt Petunia was peeved that her chat was interrupted and sent Harry to find out who it was and to get them to go away.

He opened the door and found that Mrs. Figg was there, and she was quite hysteric. "My cat, Harry, my cat!"

"What's wrong?" Harry was surprised that Mrs. Figg was there. She hadn't been over to the house in several years.

"My cat Tiddles is stuck in a tree and I can't get her down. Help me Harry!" Harry had never seen Mrs. Figg in any other state but boring. Harry didn't think it would be very polite to refuse so he yelled behind him that he was going to save Mrs. Figg's cat and left with the old lady who seemed to have gotten faster since the last time he saw her. She was running off toward her house.

They arrived and saw that the cat was fairly far up in an oak tree. It was tall but it didn't look too hard to climb and the cat was meowing in a frightened way. Harry grabbed a branch and swung himself up. He climbed to where the cat was and, with some clawing, he managed to get the cat safely to the ground.

He turned to pass the scared cat over to Mrs. Figg and noticed that she was looking down at a red watch intently. This was curious for how could she be hysterical with worry one minute and concentrating on a watch the next. She looked up and Harry a little surprised that he could get the cat down so quickly, but he was tall and he had always been good at climbing because he had to escape the clutches of his bullying cousin. She changed in an instant to a face of pure relief. She took the spooked cat from Harry's arms, thanked him and sent him home to a house full of people wondering what was going on.

* * *

The rest of the day had gone on well enough. Mrs. Rankle had to leave and do some other things, but she was very impressed by the fact that Harry saved Mrs. Figg's cat and she invited Harry to come over to their home sometime. This annoyed Aunt Petunia greatly because the same offer was not given to Dudley too, so Harry didn't think he would actually be able to go.

Afterwards Tad tried to make up for the unintentional insult his mother gave Dudley by inviting him to come over too. They then worked on their homework from that week and though Tad was not as good as Harry at teaching Dudley, they had to keep the illusion that Tad was there for Dudley and not Harry so Tad tutored him as best he could.

During this time Aunt Petunia sent Harry out into the backyard to do chores finding all sorts of still chores to keep him away from Dudley and his "friend". Harry disliked this greatly but was glad to have Tad at dinner. It made it so that the Dursleys were more civil to him, even though they were still quite rude.

At nine Tad had to go and he still hadn't seen Harry's room. They waved goodbye at the porch and Aunt Petunia sent Harry straight to his room.